


I Think I wanna Marry You

by actualgarbage



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:04:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4180881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualgarbage/pseuds/actualgarbage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Who am I going to convince to buy a plane ticket to Virginia, wear a tux, and tell my grandmother they’re in love with me?”</p><p>“Well I mean you could try asking someone who’s already on the guest list of you’d like,” Wick’s tone was one that she knew meant trouble and it didn’t take more than a second for her to realize what he meant.</p><p>“No way am I making Bellamy pretend to be my boyfriend. That’s a bad rom-com waiting to happen and you know it.”</p><p>“You love rom-coms,” he replied.</p><p>A response to the prompt I was sent on tumblr: Can you please do "you need a plus-one for your brother’s wedding so i’m going as a favor but there’s been a misunderstanding and now your whole family thinks we’re engaged" AU (bonus if Wick is Clarke's brother and/or Bellamy's best friend)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was a gift and I'm physically incapable of writing anything short.

The Griffin family has been known to be slightly overbearing at times, and Clarke is usually rather adept at handling everything that entails. She’s a master at fielding her mother’s demands about her life after college, she deals with her father’s constant nosiness, and hell, she even handles her obnoxious brother Wick’s unusual protectiveness that manifests itself through overt sarcasm and humorous intimidation (his words, not hers). One thing she can’t handle though, is Grandma Griffin’s need for her to find a husband. 

“Wick, please just explain to her that I have too much school work to be looking for a husband,” Clarke muttered into the phone. 

“Oh come on,” he dragged out the last word in response. “You and I both know that saying that just results in the story of how she married Papaw when she was 18, had dad when she was 19, and still managed to get through college. Grandma is a force of nature.”

“Well what else am I supposed to respond with? She already thinks I’m an old maid headed for a future with too many cats.”

“Bring a date to my wedding at least. That should hold her off for at least a year or so.”

“You’re getting married in three weeks, Kyle.” Clarke deadpanned.

“I am?! Well geez. That’s news to me. Did you hear that, Raven?” Clarke could hear him shouting away from the phone. “Clarke says I’m getting married in three weeks!”

“Who would be dumb enough to marry you?” She heard Raven shout back before her brother and future sister-in-law broke into laughter. Clarke missed them terribly. Unfortunately Clarke went to school across the country from her hometown in Virginia. Wick had gone there, too, but he was exactly four years ahead of her and moved back east right when she moved out to California. 

“You guys are idiots. But you know what I meant. I can’t get a date in that time.”

“Not with that attitude you can’t.”

“Could you please be serious for just one second? Now that you have Raven, Grandma only has me to obsess over and I just don’t want to disappoint her.”

“I know, I know.” Her brother, to his credit, did manage to sound somewhat sincere. “You aren’t a disappointment to anyone though. You’re a kickass gal-”

“A _gal_? What is this? An old timey-”

“Would you just let me finish? I’m trying to be nice to you for once. You should be savoring this not mocking me.”

“Fine. Get on with singing my praises.” She smiled into the receiver and settled onto her couch.

“I was _saying_  that you’re a kickass gal, and you’re brilliant, and organized, and incredibly talented and you don’t need a significant other to impress anyone- even Grandma.”

“I know that, it’s just that the one thing she’s ever wanted for me is to be as happy in a marriage as she and Papaw have been and I just want to give her some hope that it might actually happen to me at some point, you know?”

“Yeah I get that. Just find someone to bring to the wedding and I’ll tell her that you’re in a relationship, okay?”

“Who am I going to convince to buy a plane ticket to Virginia, wear a tux, and tell my grandmother they’re in love with me?”

“Well I mean you could try asking someone who’s already on the guest list of you’d like,” Wick’s tone was one that she knew meant trouble and it didn’t take more than a second for her to realize what he meant.

“No way am I making Bellamy pretend to be my boyfriend. That’s a bad rom-com waiting to happen and you know it.”

“You love rom-coms,” he replied.

“ _Everybody_ loves rom-coms but aside from the fact that doing that would be a cheap plot, I don’t want to ask him to do that. It’s an inconvenience to him and I think it’s pushing it a little bit, don’t you? I mean he’s _your_  friend not mine.”

“I know for a fact he is just as much your friend as he is mine at this point. I may have forced him to watch out for you when I moved back here, but he’s stuck around you for three years because he likes you, not because he likes me.” Clarke knew Wick was right. When she came out to school Wick had made sure that his friend Bellamy would help her get settled and watch out for her when Wick couldn’t since Bellamy was just starting his senior year when Clarke was a freshman. Bellamy soon figured out that Clarke didn’t need watching out for and was entirely capable of handling herself, but the two had become good friends anyways and it was nice to already know someone in a new place so they’d stuck together.

“Yes I know. I just don’t wanna make things weird.” As if on cue, there was a knock at Clarke’s door. “Wait one sec, someone’s at the door.” She got up and made her way over to the door.

“Is it Blake himself?”

“I hate you, but yes. We’re getting dinner before we go to the library to study.”

“Ask him to be your date to the wedding,” 

“Please stop talking to me,” Clarke said as she opened the door. Bellamy furrowed his brow at her and pointed to himself in question.

She rolled her eyes in answer, pointed to the phone. “Brother.”

“Aha. Tell Wick I say hello.” He commented as he moved into the apartment.

“I’m not going to do that. Wick doesn’t deserve a hello. He’s being obnoxious today.”

“Hey! I am trying to help you here. No need to get snippy,” Wick admonished in her ear.

“Put him on speaker phone.” Bellamy took a step towards her and started reaching for the phone.

“No I really don’t think that you want me to do that. Actually Wick was just hanging up he has-” He playfully snatched the phone from her hand before she could finish her protests.

“Hey, Wick! Why doesn’t your sister want me to talk to you?” Clarke lunged after him trying to recover her cell. He put it on speaker and held it above his head so she couldn’t reach it

“Because she’s being a baby,” came the reply.

“Wow, thanks big brother.” Clarke snapped as she continued to struggle to get her phone back.

“Well, you are. Clarke needs a date to my wedding so our grandmother won’t think she’s going to die alone.”

“Oh,” Bellamy said, halting the pursuit and leaving the two of them standing much too close together for Clarke’s comfort. “I’ll be your date.”

“I told you he’d do it!”

“You really don’t have to, Bellamy. I couldn’t ask you to-”

“You’re not asking, I’m offering. Plus, who else are you going to convince to fly across the country with you on such short notice.” Bellamy’s tone was adamant, and as much as she would have liked to, Clarke knew that there was no point in arguing with him about it. His mind was made up.

“That’s what _I_  said,” Wick contributed.

“You know it isn’t just like a friend date,” She was still too close to him, looking up at him with an imploring expression. “We would have to pretend it was like a _date_  date.”

“I think we can handle it, Clarke. Plus it isn’t like you have any other options.

“She thinks it’s a great idea. She’ll do it, thanks Bell.”

Bellamy smiled at Wick’s comment and Clarke was starting to realize how much of a bad idea this was. She took a step back and Bellamy lowered his arm from where he’d been holding the phone out of her reach.

“C’mon, it won’t be the end of the world and I _know_  how your Grandma gets. We’re both in the wedding party, we’re already great friends, it just makes sense,” She started to open her mouth to reply but knowing where she was headed he cut her off. “And it Isn’t an inconvenience to me. It’ll be fun.”

“Fine,” she conceded, “but I told Wick earlier, I am not letting this play out like one of those stupid romantic comedies, okay?” She heard her brother start laughing over the phone and Bellamy smirked.

“Then all you have to do is promise not to fall in love with me and we’re set.”

“Oh, shut up. We all know you’d fall for me first,” she shoved him lightly.

“Please, princess, I’m a catch and you know it.”

“Gross you guys, save your flirting for the wedding,” Clarke had almost forgotten that her brother was still listening in. “I’ll tell the grandmother you’re bringing a date. Also you’re welcome for solving your problems sister, dearest. I have to go, Raven needs some help with flowers or something. I’ll talk to you guys later.”

“Love you, Kyle.”

“Bye, Wick,” Bellamy said and hung up her phone for her.

Clarke walked back to the couch and Bellamy followed, taking his usual seat beside her. There was a halfway uncomfortable silence that hung between them. Clarke let it linger for a few pointed seconds while she avoided eye contact.

“I promise not to make this weird if you promise, too.” Clarke rushed out.

“I pinky promise. We don’t even have to talk about it until we get on the plane.” 

Clarke turned towards him and shook pinkies with him, the juvenile action breaking the tension of the situation for a full two and a half weeks until they found themselves on the plane headed for Virginia.

…

The first leg of the trip went off without a hitch. It wasn’t until after the connection in Atlanta that Clarke even started to stress. She would have been totally fine if it were just a wedding that Bellamy had to pretend to like her for, but the wedding was still five days away. But she was the maid of honor and Bellamy was a groomsman so they were flying in early. That meant several days of maintaining the falsity of a relationship. Maybe they would only tell Grandma Griffin they were together and let everyone else know it was a lie. That was a solid plan, right?

It wasn’t that she was particularly nervous about convincing anyone- they got asked if they were together all the time. It was just that she still felt like it was such an inconvenience to be making him do this for her. 

Clarke Griffin was many things, but she was especially known for her fierce independence. It was a gift and a curse, though. It meant that she hated asking for help more than almost anything else. It had actually caused problems with hers and Bellamy’s relationship when they first met.

As Bellamy did all he could to try and help her get settled she fought his assistance tirelessly. It didn’t matter that she actually needed assistance carrying all of her things to her fourth floor dorm. He was insistent though. They argued every time he tried to help her for months. It wasn’t until Clarke ended up slightly tipsy at a party after a good game of quarters and the only person she could find that she knew was Bellamy that things changed. It turned out that drunk Clarke wasn’t a great navigator and that saying “I need you” can go a long way towards building a relationship (also a pretty good way to get help back to your dorm).

So of course when Clarke was panicked on the plane Bellamy knew it. He reached his hand over the armrest to grab hers and reassured her that everything would be fine, it was no trouble at all, and that he wanted to help her. But of course he didn’t say that- he didn’t need to. He just took her hand, gave her a huge smile and said “together,” but she understood what that really meant.

He took her hand again after they’d grabbed their carry-ons and deplaned, only this time it was to play boyfriend. Jake griffin met them by the baggage claim with a sweeping hug for Clarke. Bellamy reached out his hand to Clarke’s father but was taken in for a hug as well.

“We’ve met enough times now that we can do away with the formalities, son. You’re in my son’s wedding and you’re dating my daughter,” Jake beamed.

Clarke couldn’t help but smile at the way Bellamy took this in stride- hugging her father back and returning the grin. It had been two minutes of pretending, but already she felt like he fit well as her boyfriend.

That couldn’t possibly be good.

The drive from the airport to the Griffin family home was spent discussing work and school and catching up with the details that don’t get shared with a country between family members. Clarke was content to listen to her father talk about his co-workers and talk to Bellamy about his master’s program until they reached the house.

Well, house was a modest word for it. 

The Griffins were wealthy- that was undeniable. Abby had come from a rich southern family and made quite a paycheck being a surgeon and Jake was an incredibly gifted engineer. There might have been a time that Clarke would worry that their finances would intimidate Bellamy, but that time was long passed.

Bellamy hadn’t exactly had an easy upbringing. His mother was neglectful in his early years and her lack of attention had put raising his younger sister Octavia mostly in his hands. Everything he did was for her until he was about 16 and his mother met Jordan, who was now his stepfather. By the time Bellamy was ready to go to college, Aurora Blake had cleaned up her act, stopped drinking, and made amends with her children. Bellamy was able to go to school with a great scholarship and only a limited amount of fear for Octavia getting on without him. His rough upbringing though had left him bitter and with an intense distrust of people with money. Wick had helped ease him out of that and for that Clarke was thankful.

She was thankful in general for the relationship her brother had formed with Bellamy. They had met at the campus student center in what was Bellamy’s sophomore year and Wick’s junior year and had hit it off immediately. Their friendship was sealed when Wick proved his worth as an excellent wing man and Bellamy actually thought Wick’s jokes were funny (they were not). More than that, though, they treated one another like brothers. 

They bonded over the protectiveness they felt towards their sisters, too. Wick had always been looking out for Clarke like Bellamy had for Octavia, only the boys showed it differently. Clarke was certain that Wick could be credited in helping Bellamy finally ease up on the way he treated Octavia because Wick’s protective nature manifested itself in a more gentle way than Bellamy’s. The two had helped each other a thousand times over. They had quite the “bromance”.

The strength of their relationship was evident in their reunion. Clarke watched as they met with a bone-crushing bear hug and a few teary eyes that she knew would be denied later on. Her gaze was interrupted though when Raven pulled her in for a similar embrace.

Clarke couldn’t be more thrilled that the girl was going to be her sister-in-law in a few short days. Reyes had barreled into her life four years earlier when she had come to visit her boyfriend from college. It turned out that Raven’s boyfriend was also Clarke’s boyfriend. The two had cut him out of their lives and gotten each other instead of heartbreak. 

Clarke had introduced Wick and Raven that thanksgiving when he came home from break and her brother was immediately smitten but Raven took much longer to fall. The rocky start to their relationship was water under the bridge now, though because eventually she fell like a ton of bricks from a skyscraper. The only two people Clarke had ever seen more in love were her Grandma Griffin and Papaw.

“Kyle told me about you and Bell- the  _real_  story that is,” Raven whispered to Clarke as they hugged and Clarke felt a wave of relief wash over her knowing that she wouldn’t have to lie to her best friend, too.

“I have a hundred bucks that says you won’t get through the week without really dating, though.”

“Raven!” Clarke gasped in response and the relief left as quickly as it had shown up. She found herself blushing furiously and pulling away from Raven so she could smack her in the shoulder.

“Clarke!” Wick shouted as he picked her up and spun her around.

“I missed you, Kyle,” she smiled into his shoulder. The Griffin children were great friends. When they were younger they fought constantly, but around the time Wick got to high school their spats became less fiery and they turned civility into a great relationship. When Wick went to college they got even closer, texting almost every day and appreciating their time together even more. She really had missed him with all of her heart.

“I missed you too, kid,” he said. “You got here just in time for lunch! To the kitchen!” He started half carrying her, half walking her backwards towards the houses kitchen until they both started laughing too hard and had to let go.

It felt good to be home.

The meal was spent much like the car ride had been, laughing and catching up until long after the food was eaten. As the afternoon wore on the conversation switched to the wedding week schedule and Clarke found herself tallying up the events she would have to attend and pretend to be with Bellamy. 

There was a family dinner that night, the bachelorette party the following night, tea with the Griffin grandparents on Wednesday, a whole day of last minute details and wedding party responsibilities on Thursday, the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the actual wedding on Saturday. Clarke was ecstatic for the week to come but couldn’t help the nerves she felt, too.

“Clarke? You still with us?” She was snapped out of her thoughts by Raven.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“Good. We should probably actually get going, Clarke. I have an appointment with the florist in a little bit for us to check over the details for the arrangements. Raven stood up from the table and the boys started clearing the dishes away.

The trip to the florist was short. Raven approved of the sage and white rose bouquets with varying pomegranate colored accents. Raven had surprised everyone by how traditional she’d been in the planning process for the ceremony. She had wanted the long white dress, the church, the flowers- all of it. And everyone was happy to give it to her. Clarke suspected it had something to do with Raven’s unconventional childhood. Her mother had essentially left Raven to fend for herself growing up and it had made Raven scary strong in ways no one should ever have to be and guarded with just about everything. She rarely did what anyone expected her to and instead found her own way in everything. But her wedding was going to be old, new, borrowed, blue, and  _perfect_.

The girls returned home to the Griffin’s with just enough time to put on sundresses for dinner. Clarke descended the stairs into the foyer and felt Bellamy’s eyes on her immediately. She was halfway to him before she even realized where her feet were taking her, but that was just because she was supposed to be dating him, of course. Her subconscious was just concerned with keeping up appearances. That’s all.

And the blinding grin he sent her way was just an act, she reminded herself.

“You look lovely, Clarke,” he greeted with a kiss to her forehead. This was nothing new- he’d done things like that before- kisses on cheeks and foreheads were casually exchanged with thank yous and greetings between them, so why was Clarke suddenly feeling so giddy over the way his lips pressed against her skin? 

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she returned his smile before her family seemed to all notice her at once. She was taken in a flurry of hugs from cousins, aunts, and grandparents who were thrilled at her arrival back in Virginia. She hardly saw Bellamy again until everyone moved to be seated at the long wooden table in the dining room. 

He met her eyes and moved towards her with a grace only he could possess in what Clarke would categorize as a very stressful situation. He was no doubt about to be grilled about being her boyfriend by her entire family yet he looked completely at ease as he pulled her chair out for her and took his place at her side.

Clarke, on the other hand, was trying not to panic. She had never been especially good at lying (something she probably ought to have taken into consideration before she had decided to take on a fake boyfriend) but here she was. It didn’t take long for her family to realize there was a handsome stranger at Clarke’s side and before the mashed potatoes could even be passed Grandma Griffin had zeroed in on Bellamy.

“Well, Clarke, who is your friend, here?” She crooned with a knowing grin on her face.

“This is Bellamy Blake, my boyfriend,” huh. The lie slid off of her tongue much more easily than she had anticipated. Her grandmother looked delighted.

“Well, Bellamy,” Grandma was practically beaming already. “Tell us about yourself. How did you two meet?”

Clarke and Bellamy had agreed to keep their story as truthful as possible and what they had come up with was hardly a stretch at all. Bellamy recounted the way Wick had asked him to help her out all the way up to their current day lives, the only alteration being that they’d been seeing one another for three months now. He had her whole family’s rapt attention and she was glad that Bellamy was so charismatic because he handled their focus like a pro.

She didn’t realize that she was staring at him with a dazed and lazy grin until she got swift but subtle elbow to the ribs from a smirking Raven beside her. She blushed furiously and turned her attention to her food, pointedly ignoring the fact that she couldn’t quite ditch the smile.

The rest of dinner was a breeze and her family finally finished interrogating her fake boyfriend and let him relax to move onto harassing a younger cousin about his college plans.

“How’d I do?” he leaned over to whisper in her ear. She didn’t miss the genuine concern in his voice.

“You were perfect,” she whispered back truthfully and was rewarded with a look that was more bashful than anything else. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him look that kind of shy before. Since when was Bellamy bashful about anything? This whole ruse was getting stranger and stranger and it had only been half a day.

The family migrated away from the dinner table and mingled over drinks and dessert for a while before the extended relatives left for their respective hotel rooms and those staying at the house made their ways to bed. Soon it was just Wick, Raven, Bellamy, and Clarke left chatting around the island in the kitchen with a few beers between them.

“I have to say,” Wick started, teasing in his tone. “You two make a  _lovely_ couple.” 

The group collapsed into laughter at that. It was true, though. Bellamy had stuck dutifully by her side through the evening, a warm presence through all of the conversations. He had even saved her from a few uncomfortable discussions about grad school and helped keep chat light when it started veering towards more controversial subjects. He was a dream when it came to small talk. She, in turn, had laughed at all of his jokes glared at her uncle Jeff before he could talk about how useless he thought Bellamy’s course of study was, and been as delightful as she could manage. They did make a great couple, they made the  _best_  couple, and maybe that should have scared Clarke more than it did, but for now she was just too relieved to have a break from pretending to dwell on it.

“No, really. Grandma was elated, she seems to really like the pair of you,” Wick continued.

“She did seem really happy,” Clarke felt a slight pang of guilt. She was lying to her own grandmother after all, but she couldn’t deny how good it felt to see Grandma Griffin looking to pleased.

“Of course she was happy. I’m incredible,” Bellamy was doing that stupid smirk thing Clarke hated with mischief in his eyes. Her heart was fine. Totally fine.

“Please,” she rolled her eyes. “They just love me. You’re practically an accessory. Like a watch, or a nice pair of shoes.”

“I’ll have you know that I am the nicest pair of shoes you’ll ever have,” He drew the hand that wasn’t holding his beer to his chest and mocked offense.

Clarke was about to make a remark about the Louboutins she had upstairs in her closet but a loud yawn from her brother cut her off.

“Well, kids,” Raven said. “Wick and I actually have to work in the morning, so we’re going to go home instead of watching the two of you stand around and flirt. Goodnight!”

“She’s right. Goodnight Clarke,” Wick came around the island and Clarke leaned her face up so he could kiss her on the cheek before he left. He gave Bellamy one of those “bro” nod things that guys did, with a “Bell,” and then the two of them were gone.

Clarke’s heart felt full. It was cliched to say, but it was true. She’d spent the day with the people she loved most in the world and she hadn’t been this happy in a long time. She looked to Bellamy to find that he was already staring at her, a look of unguarded contentment gracing his complexion.

“What?” She matched his gaze.

“Nothing, I just like seeing you so happy.”

It didn’t surprise her that he knew exactly what she’d been feeling. She was an open book (well not really, he just knew how to read her). 

“That’s good, because I like feeling this happy.”

They stood there in the kitchen, him leaning back casually against the counter, Clarke mirroring him against the island, just grinning lazily at one another before he cleared his throat and looked at his watch.

“Well it is pretty late and we’ve both got long nights tomorrow so we should stock up on sleep while we can,” He said.

“Ugh Raven is going to make us stay out all night. I’m not sure my body is  _ever_  going to be ready to consume the amount of alcohol we’ll undoubtedly consume, either,” she felt a little wobbly on her feet just thinking about it, or maybe it was just that Bellamy was standing very close behind her as he reached around her where she was trying to rinse out the Blue Moon bottle in the sink to take it from her. “My lame and original brother is probably just going to take all of you groomsmen to a strip club and then leave after half an hour to go bowling instead because he’s so smitten with Raven he won’t enjoy being surrounded by strippers,” Clarke felt like she was babbling- a nervous habit of hers. That didn’t make any sense though. She had no reason to be nervous. It wasn’t like being alone with Bellamy was having any effect on her. They’d been together just like this hundreds of times before.

Bellamy had essentially caged her in with his arms on either side of her as he rinsed out the bottles for them. Too soon though he was moving away and tossing them in the recycling bin they kept next to the trash.

“Yeah Wick is whipped in every way. I would expect nothing less out of his bachelor party. Especially since Monty is planning it,” Bellamy said as they walked to the stairs together. If he noticed her rambling he didn’t indicate it. 

“I didn’t know you knew Monty,” Clarke replied. Monty was a co-worker of Wick’s that she’d known since they’d been in high school together. He was younger than she was, but he was also brilliant and had finished high school at 15 and college at 18. He was also Wick’s best man.

“Yeah, we’ve only spoken a few times, but I get the vibe that the only part of partying he really understands is the drinking,” Bellamy said, and was surprisingly accurate.

“Get ready to try the strongest moonshine you’ve ever had,” She smiled. “I can’t wait to see you hungover on Wednesday.” Bellamy had an annoyingly high tolerance for alcohol and she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him completely drunk.

“I don’t get hangovers, Clarke. You know that,” another annoying quality of his.

“Just wait,” she was certain Monty’s moonshine would do him in. 

They’d reached the top of stairs by now where they had to part ways. His guest room being on the opposite side of the house from hers. There was a distinct pause before they moved, though, both of them unsure how to say goodnight.

“Thanks for-” Clarke said at the same time Bellamy stuttered out

“I uh-” They both stopped.

“You go ahead,” Bellamy rushed.

“I just wanna say thank you again. You know, for pretending to be my boyfriend and all.” She nodded as she spoke.

“I mean it’s a pretty hard thing to do, you know. You’re kind of a monster,” he teased  lightheartedly.

“No, seriously,” she hit him lightly on the chest. “My family really does love you.”

“It’s the curse of being charming,” he looked shy again. She liked it.

“Goodnight,” She breathed out. Clarke reached up to his jaw and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

She turned away and heard him say goodnight after her, but missed the way he stayed standing where she’d left him, smiling sadly for just a beat too long.

 


	2. Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stayed up until 2:30 last night writing this chapter so I could get it out to you guys before I went out of town, and it was worth it because I just finished and I need to leave my house in 20 minutes. Sorry for any errors, it went unbeta'd in the name of time.

Morning greeted Clarke with sunshine dimmed through her curtains. Laughter was drifting up from downstairs accompanied by the smell of pancakes. It was bound to be a good day.

Tuesday was finally here and Clarke had been planning for weeks. As the Maid of honor it was her responsibility to ensure that the bachelorette party was a night to remember- or really, a night to forget. Because, you know, alcohol.

Clarke had it all lined up. The group of bridesmaids would complete every stereotypical event- strip club and all, and top it off with some moonshine at the end. It was exactly what Raven wanted and she was happy to deliver. That’s just what best friends are supposed to do.

She listed all of the last minute organizational things she had to complete before the party as she stretched and settled further into her comforter. Clarke’s bed was _comfortable_ , and morning could wait. The only real motivation she could muster to get out of bed was the prospect of coffee but she didn’t really need caffeine when going back to sleep was an option.

She felt herself dozing in and out of consciousness for the next while, content to listen to the sound of friends and family from the kitchen. A set of familiar footsteps roused her midmorning as they made their way closer and closer to her door.

Comfortable as she was, though, she remained snuggled under the covers with no intention to let the visitor know she was awake in case they might try to get her to come downstairs. The door opened and clicked closed and she heard the clink of a glass on her nightstand- she hoped that meant coffee. Only when a familiar hand was gently laid on her shoulder did she bother to stir.

“Clarke, I brought coffee,” and oh thank God for Bellamy. Coffee was her _favorite_.

“I _know_ coffee is your favorite, that’s why I brought it to you,” he halfway chuckled and maybe she wasn’t very great at controlling her tongue when she was half asleep, but who was, really.

Bellamy’s palm shook her shoulder a little bit when she still refused to move, but all it did was get her to roll over and try sleepily to get him to lay down with her.

“C’mon Clarke,” she could hear the smile in his voice but she still hadn’t opened her eyes. “It’s time to get up,” he argued, but didn’t fight her when she blindly grabbed for his shoulder to pull him down next to her.

“We have to get out of bed,” his voice was low and rumbling and much closer to her face than she thought it would be. She couldn’t stop the smile that graced her face in response to him. When had beaming like an idiot been her first response to her _friend_ ,Bellamy?

“I’m serious, Clarke,” Bellamy chided, but she could hear the laughter in his voice contradicting his words.

She just grumbled and nuzzled further into the bed and also Bellamy’s chest- which, by the way was _not intention_ al because how was she supposed to know that he had laid down so close to her? It did not, of course, cause her to move away from him. If she’d made things weird by pressing her face into his shoulder, it would be weirder for her to move away after she’d done it.

If Bellamy was fazed by her actions though, he didn’t let on. He threw an arm around her waist and his chest rumbled with a light laugh as he pulled her closer. They stayed like that for a moment in the most comfortable silence Clarke had ever experienced. She could feel herself drifting off again, warm and happy with his arms around her.

Bellamy gave a drawn out sigh before tightening his arms. She moved her head and looked at his face. The look he was giving her was foreign to her, and she’d file it away to consider when she was more awake and less happy.

“We really have to get up. The coffee’s going to get cold,” he whispered, and as much as Clarke wanted to save this moment, she did have things to do.

She grumbled a quick “fine” and the two of them sat up. Without her needing to ask, he was pressing the mug into her hands.

“Thanks, Bell,” she spoke softly, her voice still revealing her tiredness.

“Anytime,” he returned, leaning over to place a kiss on her temple before he was up off of the bed and out of her room.

Deciding to ignore Bellamy’s unusual behavior she went about her day. After coffee and getting properly dressed, she went through her checklist of last minute details for the party and before she knew it the time had come for Clarke to pick Raven up from work so they could get ready together.

“So, what are you wearing tonight?” Raven gave her a feral look from the passenger seat. “It has to be something really hot, Clarke. This is your last night of freedom.”

“Raven? You do know this is _your_ bachelorette party, right? I’m not the one getting married here.” Clarke shot back at her.

She thought she might of heard Raven murmur something that sounded a hell of a lot like “tell that to Bellamy,” but Clarke pointedly ignored it and faced the road, hoping her face wasn’t changing shades at the comment.

It wasn’t that she had anything to blush about.

She _didn’t_.

Clarke told herself that it was just because she and Bellamy were pretending to date, that’s all. It wasn’t something friends normally had to do and so it was completely normal to feel slightly bashful about the way the two of them had fewer boundaries now.

The rest of the drive went in silence as the two of them stared out the windows and soon they were pulling up to Raven and Wick’s apartment.

It didn’t take long for the girls to go through their wardrobe choices and pick the perfect dresses. Raven ends up in red with striking cutouts and a neckline that could bring any man (and most women, too,) to their knees in a heartbeat. Clarke stuck with your classic, backless, little black dress, and she knew she looked good. Hair and makeup took up the rest of their afternoon (Raven liked to have fun with Clarke’s eyeliner) and before they knew it, the rest of the bridesmaids were showing up at the apartment.

Harper and Monroe brought a champagne bottle each and Raven screeched like a little kid at the sight of it. Clarke popped the bottle open and poured a flute for everyone.

The stripper showed up just as Clarke was pouring her own glass.

“Did someone call for a mechanic?” Came with the knock at the door.

Clarke looked up from pouring just in time to catch Raven’s well-meaning glare before the girl got up to answer the door. The bridesmaids were in a fit of laughter over it.

“Josh the Mechanic” waltzed into Raven’s living room with a toolbox and some cutoff short and Clarke was almost wheezing with laughter. It got worse when he actually started his routine because Raven started critiquing his usage of the props.

“You can’t hold the wrench like that, you’ll have no leverage,” she would spit out between fits of laughter.

Clarke almost pitied the poor man, but once his initial shock wore off, he seemed to be trying not to join the girls in their laughter.

As Mel was trying to put ones in the man’s… something, Clarke’s phone lit up. She excused herself and took the call in the kitchen. It was just the bar they were headed to later confirming the details Clarke had arranged in advance and the call ended quickly, but unable to resist, she stayed in the kitchen a bit longer to check her social media. She had to see what the boys were up to.

From Wick’s twitter account, it seemed like they were having a great time. They had just finished a game of football and were no doubt on to do something else that screamed “guys night,” but they all looked like they were having the time of their lives and that was what was important.

The only reason she happened to save her brother’s tweeted picture was of course, to document her friends’ happiness. It had nothing to do with the way that Bellamy’s biceps looked as he held the football out of Miller’s reach. That would be absurd.

Clarke decided it was probably time to be done with the champagne. She was driving later, anyways, so she traded out her glass for a water bottle and made her way back to the living room.

An hour later Josh had put on quite the show and it was time for the group to move the party out in public. They touched up their lipstick and then piled into Raven’s SUV, singing Taylor Swift all the way to Grounders’ Bar.

“Why are we at a place called grinders?” Monroe muttered. Clarke had forgotten that the redhead got a little bit ditzy when she was drunk and it was obvious she had pre-gamed a little bit too hard. Clarke made a mental note to keep an eye out for the girl for the rest of the night.

As soon as the group entered, they were given shots, just as Clarke had planned. She had connections with the owner (Indra had taught Clarke’s self-defense classes in high school) and had even managed to arrange the playlist for the evening.

Clarke was the best maid of honor in the world, and Raven told her as much- many times. Whatever Indra had put in those shots was doing its job and Raven and her bridesmaids were headed quickly away from sobriety.

Shots were followed by margaritas sipped between trips to the dancefloor. It was a blast.

Until the boys showed up.

Clarke hadn’t planned for that.

But there they were, marching in the front doors and doing that “bro shouting” thing that guy did when they were drunk and in groups.

Clarke strutted determinedly up to them and poked her finger straight into Monty’s chest.

“What are you doing here?” She seethed.

“Um,” Monty looked taken aback, and yeah, maybe Clarke should have considered that she hasn’t seen him in several months and he was most likely anticipating a friendlier encounter upon their next encounter, but that wasn’t important at the moment. “We’re here to get really drunk?” he settled on after a period of almost frenzied hesitation.

“No, _we’re_ here to get drunk.” Clarke returned.

Monty shrugged halfheartedly and pulled a flask out of his jacket pocket.

“ _Monty_ ,” she chided. “You can’t bring your moonshine to a bar! Indra will kick your ass!”

“If you let us stay then at least you get to watch it happen,” Monty offered, and, well, he had a good point. That didn’t mean Clarke wasn’t still mad that her party was being crashed, though.

Somehow though, Clarke ended up twirling around the dancefloor with Miller not ten minutes later. It’s not like the groups wouldn’t have ended up together at some point anyways, so she might as well embrace it. It was so hard to separate Wick and Raven anyways. The drunker everyone got the more likely they were to gravitate towards each other so it was better to just get it over with and let everyone have fun.

The boys had let her stew over their appearance for about five minutes before Nathan had grabbed her hand and started spinning her around. She and Miller had known each other for the same amount of time she’d known Bellamy. They’d been fast friends and it was hard to say goodbye when he’d moved to Toronto for graduate school, but it was no surprise that Wick had chosen him as groomsman. The man was quiet, but he had drawn the Griffins in anyways and was a lifetime friend.

Clarke was overwhelmed with how grateful she was for his presence and stopped dancing to give him a massive hug. He picked her up and twirled her around. When he set her down, she felt a familiar gaze on her back and turned to see Bellamy gazing fondly at the two of them. He was probably just happy to have Miller back around, she reasoned.

The two had been roommates, after all. If Bellamy and Wick were friends, then Bellamy and Miller were practically soulmates. Of course he was happy to see his fake girlfriend getting along with his best friend. He was _supposed_ to be fond of them both. He was just playing his part, that’s all.

Still, Miller seemed to notice Bellamy’s stare, too.

“You’re good for one another,” Miller told her assuredly.

She stuttered for a few seconds before settling on a quick “thanks,” and deciding she needed a drink.

She ordered a beer and figured they’d be at the bar long enough for her to drink one and still be plenty sober to drive home. Clarke sat on one of the bar stools and looked out at the dimly lit room. Again she felt a rush of affection for the people she got to call friends (and family). Even though most of them lived far away, she never felt distant from them. It was truly remarkable that she’d found home in so many faces.

Moments went by before she realized she’d been gazing off into space. Well not space exactly, but at Bellamy. He was the one who felt most like home, and that terrified her to no end. Her mind shot back to that morning and the unmatched comfort she’d felt lying next to him. They fit together like they were meant to be and nothing about it had seemed unnatural.

In retrospect, however, Clarke was freaking out about it. She knew Bellamy was pretending to be her boyfriend, but wasn’t that supposed to be a part-time thing? Friends aren’t exactly supposed to wake up other friends by bringing the coffee and hanging out in bed together. Clarke was certain there were some definite boundaries being crossed.

What was worse was that she wasn’t sure she minded.

She seriously needed to snap out of whatever this was. Clarke turned around and downed her beer. One of the bartenders seemed to be staring rather intently at someone over Clarke’s shoulder and curious, Clarke glanced back to see that Bellamy was the object of the woman’s attention.

Suddenly Clarke got a taste in her mouth that was a lot like jealousy but since this was most definitely not a rom-com she chose to ignore as she bore holes in the counter with her eyes.

At least she managed to ignore it until Bellamy started to make a beeline for the bar. The bartender looked like she was ready to pounce on him like a lion as he made his way through the sweaty crowd and Clarke tensed increasingly as she waited for the inevitable pick up line to escape his lips. She’d seen it a hundred times by now. Bellamy was a charmer.

When the words didn’t come, she startled slightly. Whirling around she found Bellamy’s gaze focused solely on her. And if she smiled at him, well, that was definitely a decision she made and absolutely not a subconscious reaction to his presence. Obviously.

Bellamy leaned close to her, set his drink on the bar behind her.

“Dance with me,” he said into her ear, and who was Clarke to say no?

He grabbed one of her hands and took them through the crowds and onto the dancefloor. Bellamy found a clear spot among the swarm of varyingly drunk couples and pulled her close (because the floor was crowded).

She heard the first few bars to Shut Up and Dance and laughed as she tossed her arms around Bellamy’s neck. Of _course_ the playlist she’d picked had turned out this song at this exact moment. She and Bellamy had shout-sung it in the car together a thousand times, screamed it at the top of their lungs and danced to it in his apartment until the neighbors had yelled at them to stop.

His arms wound lazily around her waist and he was laughing as he started singing the lyrics to her at the top of his lungs.

After two rounds of the chorus her ribs hurt from laughter and she pressed her face into his shoulder to try and catch her breath.

They’d danced to this song a hundred times, but never like this before. His hands were pressed firmly onto the skin of her back as they twirled around and they were pressed closer than she thought they’d ever been. Logically Clarke knew that Bellamy was probably drunk- everyone had been taking shots that night, but she was still having a ball.

The bridge came and Bellamy grabbed her hand to twirl her.

“ _Deep in her eyes, I think I see the future_ ,” Bellamy, pulled her close and managed through his smile and Clarke’s heart leapt in her chest for some reason.

Her arms went back over his shoulders as his came back down to her waist and Clarke felt unabashedly happy.

God, Bellamy was her best friend- he was allowed to make her happy, okay?

They jumped around and spun until the song was over and found themselves pressed chest to chest and beaming. Bellamy let out a breathy sigh that still had a twinge of laughter to it. He cleared his throat before the next song came on.

“I, uh,” he dropped he removed his hands from her back and she, in turn removed hers as well. “I think I need a drink.”

He put a hand to the back of his neck and hastily pushed his way through the crowd and away from her. She tried not to dwell on it and made her way back to the bar.

The rest of the party passed quickly- Clarke made a round every hour or so and made each of the girls drink a full glass of water, she danced with Monroe and Harper, stopped Raven from standing on a table and trying to sing Love on Top, and soon it was time for Monty and Clarke to try and round up the whole crew to go home.

Originally, the plan had been to have the guys crash at Monty’s place, but Wick and Raven lived closer and it would be easier for the two of them to round everyone up if they could do it together. They _were_ the only remotely sober people among the group anyways.

Monty does a headcount in as the group is gathered by the bar’s door while Clarke tries to lean Harper on the wall.

“We’re still missing Bellamy,” Monty says to Clarke and _of course_ they are.

After they danced, Clarke saw him go to Monty and down more of the moonshine than was strictly healthy. She’d barely seen him since then, but as she left Monty to start loading their friends into cars, it didn’t take long for her to find him

Bellamy was leaning on the bar and chatting up the bartender who had been raking her eyes over him all night.

The woman- Echo, Clarke thinks her nametag read- is leaning in, too, looking like she’s going for the kill. Clarke is still making her way through the crowd when she sees Echo’s demeanor change, though. She straightened and stiffened at whatever Bellamy was saying to her, but as Clarke got closer Echo nodded in understanding and Clarke found herself wishing she could get to them faster and eavesdrop. She wanted to hear so maybe she could find a solid reason for the gratification she felt in her chest at the fact that Bellamy had rejected her advances.

As soon as she was in earshot though, Bellamy seemed to submit to being drunk and Echo lost interest or something and walked to the other end of the bar. Bellamy didn’t say much as Clarke helped him off the stool and to the cars where the rest of their friends were waiting. In fact, he didn’t say much at all until Clarke helped both him and her brother into the guest room.

When he did speak, it was closer to mumbling. She thought he might have mentioned something about Miller, but honestly who could’ve told? Clarke, in the three years she’s known him, has barely ever seen him drunk- much less completely wasted as he was then.

“Geez, no moonshine for you at the wedding,” she scolded, not expecting a coherent reply.

“There’s going to be a wedding?” he said, sounding genuinely confused.

“Of course there’s a wedding, idiot, that’s what we were celebrating tonight.” She rolled her eyes, but found his drunken stupidity more endearing than annoying.

“Oh, good,” he breathed, sounding more than overwhelmed with relief.

Clarke just laughed and got ready to leave them to sleep. Before she could exit though, Bellamy grabbed her wrist, apparently not done talking.

“It’s so good there’s finally a wedding.” He paused, and Clarke wasn’t quite sure if he intended to continue but his face looked like he was proclaiming something in earnest when he said that. “You’re the best, Clarke. Like really the real best- you’re my best friend. And you’re just really damn beautiful, too, which is really frustrating, Clarke. It’s really great that there’s a wedding, Clarke, I’m so really glad we’re getting married, Clarke,” he tumbled out.

Clarke was speechless. What were you supposed to say to your very drunk fake-boyfriend, who is also your best friend, when he tells you he’s happy the two of you are finally getting married?

Fortunately she was saved from having to respond by her brother who decided that he needed to find his phone immediately. He clapped Bellamy on the shoulder to recruit him to help find the device and Clarke managed to slip out of the room.

Monty gave her a look to ask if everything was okay but she waved him off. She slipped into some pajamas and made herself comfortable on the couch. She had had to step over a few of her friends who were sleeping on the floor on masses of pillows to get there, but when she collapsed into the cushions she’d never felt more relieved to be sitting down.

It had been a long day. A good day, though. She felt herself drifting off to sleep almost immediately but her phone buzzed and brought her further away from drowsiness. She decided whatever it was could wait til morning and she went back to bed. If she fell asleep smiling over what Bellamy had said, drunk as he was, that was no one’s business but her own.

 

 

_3:56 am_

_@wick_griffin mentioned you in a tweet: “SOO o excited to announce there’s gonna be another Griffin wedding soon! Conrats @bellamyblake and @cgriff !!!!11 pic.twitter.ehirf12jd…” view now_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts?? Comments??? Feelings?? Predictions?  
> I'm dying to know what you all thought about this chapter because I haven't had it written long enough to form an opinion on it so I have no idea if it's good or not. All feedback is immensely appreciated whether it's kudos or somments. thanks for reading and as always, you can find me on [Tumblr](protectlydiamartin2k15.tumblr.com).  
> XOXO


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke Griffin is engaged?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: completely unbeta'd and honestly is probably a wreck. I just wanted to get it out there as fast as I could- even if that means a month later than I thought it would be.

The stiffness in Clarke’s neck was the first thing she noticed when she fell slowly into consciousness the next morning. The second thing she noticed was the light snoring coming from a few feet away where Miller was sprawled out on the floor in between Monty and Harper.

She smiled to herself as she sat up and stretched out her stiff muscles. Sleeping on a couch definitely wasn’t ideal, but she was certain that she felt significantly better than any of her friends would when they woke up. Clarke tried to check her phone but at some point while she was asleep it must have died. It wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, though. Anyone she might need to contact was already in the apartment. She’d charge it when she got back to her parent’s house to get ready for tea with Grandma.

Another look at her friends as she tiptoed over their sleeping forms had her deciding that she needed to make her classic cheesecake pancakes for the. Nothing cured a hangover better. She was halfway through making the batter when Monty joined her in the kitchen and offered to help. He started on the bacon and she sipped her coffee as the pancakes cooked on the griddle.

Raven was the next to make her way to the kitchen and she greeted Clarke in a tone that could only be described as cautious- like she was trying not to startle a wild animal or something. Clarke shrugged it off, though, and blamed it on her friend’s hangover combined with a caffeine deficiency. She pressed a cup of coffee into Raven’s hands and hoped the problem would go away.

The rest of the bridal party was lured (presumably by the smell of bacon) into the room one by one after that and soon Harper had put on a second pot of coffee and Monroe was pouring orange juice for the group as they sat slumped at the table. It was quiet, only the sound of forks scraping the plates to fill the space.

It hadn’t slipped Clarke’s attention that Raven wasn’t the only one eyeing her suspiciously, but no one was offering up an explanation for it, so she figured that she didn’t have anything to worry about- her friends were a fairly direct group of people. She toyed with the idea that maybe something had happened last night, but it was unlikely that any of them even had a full recollection of the evening, Monty’s brew made sure of that.

Never in her life had she seen Bellamy drunk like he had been and it was an unreal experience. If he was drunk enough to forget that their fake relationship was just that- fake, then he had better prepare himself for one hell of a hangover. He and Clarke’s brother had yet to appear in the kitchen, which was probably for the best because Clarke was fighting a slight blush at Bellamy’s words that were playing on repeat in her head and she didn’t want to have to explain it to him.

Still, she figured she should go check on the pair of them. Clarke was about to ask Raven if she’d heard anything out of them that morning when a pair of familiar arms startled her by wrapping around her waist from behind.

“I can’t remember a damn thing from last night,” Bellamy’s voice, heavy with sleep and something else, rumbled into her hair.

Clarke blamed her racing heart on the surprise of his appearance instead of the feeling of his stubble against her neck as he buried his face in her shoulder.

“Oh?” she stammered out.

It was probably for the best that he didn’t remember last night and she’d probably tease him about trying to marry her when he’d recovered.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Is this what being hungover feels like?”

Clarke made to let out a light laugh at that, but it came out more as a sharp inhale because Bellamy was tightening his arms around her. This was new behavior. She shot a panicked glance over to the table only to see Harper staring at them starry-eyed and Raven deliver a swift kick to Monroe under the table when she opened her mouth as if to speak.

Raven turned her attention back to Clarke and raised her eyebrow expectantly. Oh, right. She was dating Bellamy. She probably shouldn’t be acting this freaked out at his arms being around her.

If Bellamy had realized Clarke was tense, he hadn’t let on, but when she relaxed and leaned back into his chest she could have sworn he let out a contented sigh.

“Well what does it feel like?” she asked him, a little louder than was strictly necessary.

“ _Pain_ ,” he flinched, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Stop enjoying this,” he murmured and squeezed her tighter, fighting off a laugh himself.

“You don’t understand how long I’ve waited to see you like this,” she smiled. “I’m finding it quite rewarding.”

He responded by pinching her sides where he knew she was embarrassingly ticklish. Clarke tossed her head back with laughter and leaned it on his shoulder. She could feel him smiling at her.  He pressed a quick kiss to her neck and it stopped her laughter short.

When she rolled her head to look at him he was already staring at her, looking almost as surprised as she was at what he’d just done.  A beat passed before he seemed to snap out of his shock.

“Seriously, Clarke,” he recovered, “How do I make it stop.

“I made cheesecake pancakes,” he lit up at that.

“God, I love you,” he said with all seriousness.

“I know,” she replied. Clarke smacked a kiss on his cheek and turned out of his arms to get him some pancakes.

Wick was standing in the doorway and she caught the end of him having a silent conversation with Raven before he met her glance with a questioning expression. Clarke’s face matched his until she realized- shit, she’d just kissed Bellamy.

This was becoming too easy. Surely and swiftly Clarke’s life was turning into a rom-com. Why was it so easy for her to act like this around him (because it was, of course, an act)? There were no feelings to substantiate her actions. That would be ridiculous.

This was fine, Clarke could handle it. Only a few more days and then everything would go back to normal, right? It had to.

Clarke handed Bellamy and Wick plates and ducked out of the room with a flimsy excuse. Why was she so freaked out about how easy it was to act like she was with Bellamy? She should be happy that they have enough trust with one another to make it convincing.

Whatever it was, Clarke resolved not to dwell on it. She went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. It was nearing on 12:30 and Clarke judged from her mascara-smudged reflection that she had more than a little freshening up to do before tea at four. Nothing sounded better to her right then than a shower and some alone time, so she grabbed her things, popped briefly into the kitchen to say she was headed out and left.

She turned on some music while she showered back at her parents’ house and it was enough to block out her thoughts for a while. After a nap and the reapplication of makeup she was feeling refreshed.

When the doorbell rang at 3:56, she figured it was time to go downstairs and put on her “happily-in-love” face for her grandmother. Wick and Bellay were walking in the door when she walked downstairs and they both inexplicably looked nervous as hell.

Bellamy caught sight of her and brightened up immediately- he was getting really good at playing the part. Clarke could still see the anxiety in his posture though. Determined to find out the cause of it, she started to pull him aside to ask him about it.

Before she had a chance to open her mouth, though, her father burst into the room.

“Congratulations!” He nearly crushed the two of them as he initiated his surprise group hug.

Clarke must have missed something because as far as she knew there was nothing that required congratulations. Bellamy seemed to register her confusion almost faster than she did, but stopped her questioning with a hand on the small of her back as they were released.

“Thank you so much,” Bellamy returned with a joy Clarke could barely tell was forced.

“I do wish I had found out from you two instead of from my son’s twitter,” Jake teased and Clarke found herself getting more and more lost. “Oh, I just can’t believe my little girl is getting married, too!”

Conveniently for Clarke, her father chose that moment to scoop her back up into a hug so he didn’t see the shock that registered on her face.

“ _Married?_ ” she mouthed at Bellamy over Jake’s shoulder.

“ _I’ll explain, just go with it,_ ” he responded silently.

Clarke’s brain was scrambling to put the pieces together. She knew it had to have something to do with what drunken Bellamy concluded. He _had_ said he was happy they were getting married, but that didn’t explain how anyone else knew about it. Her phone still lay in her purse upstairs- forgotten and uncharged, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t have time to ask questions because her father was pulling away, sniffling. God, she hoped he wasn’t going to cry.

Wick had mysteriously disappeared during the exchange which left Clarke to handle this curveball without any familial moral support. She wasn’t sure how yet, but she was almost certain this mess was his fault.

She gave her beaming father a look to match his own and watched as he gave Bellamy a hearty handshake. Again, Clarke found herself envious of Bellamy’s ability to maintain his composure in any situation. Granted, he seemed to have more of a heads up than she did in this situation, but still, he was taking it in stride.

As her father, speechless with joy, ushered the “happy couple” to the back patio to where Grandma Griffin was hosting tea, Clarke felt the guilt of having Bellamy help her creep up again. This wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan. It wasn’t like it made that much of a difference, though. Either way they were telling a lie to the people she loved most in the world.

Every single concern she might have had about the plan, however, completely evaporated when she and Bellamy walked out onto the porch and saw Grandma Griffin smiling with teary eyes. The only thing Clarke could think was that everything had been worth it.

Clarke felt her own vision go misty as her grandmother slowly rose from her seat and made her way over to embrace her only granddaughter.

“I’m so proud of you, Clarke,” Granma Griffin sniffled as she pulled away. She shook her head a little to get a better handle on her words before she spoke again. “Now show me the ring!”

The ring.

There _wasn’t_ a ring.

Clarke hadn’t even _begun_ to think about the details of this whole situation.

“Oh, we didn’t get one yet. We weren’t planning on telling anyone, actually. We didn’t want to steal any of the attention from Raven and Wick,” Bellamy it seemed _had_ had time to process at least some of the problems with this whole story, and as far as excuses went, that was a pretty good one.

“Oh,” Grandma Griffin crooned and placed a hand on her heart. “That is _so_ considerate of you two. What did I do to earn such angels as grandchildren- and Wick, of course.”

“ _Hey_!” Wick called from across the deck. So that’s where he had gone.

Throughout the meal Wick pointedly avoided making eye contact with Clarke, which further confirmed her suspicions that this mess was his fault. To her surprise, however, plotting revenge on her brother wasn’t taking up her thoughts like it might have at one point in her life. She spent most of tea accepting congratulations on her engagement and just enjoying being with her family- Bellamy included.

Having his hand linked with hers under the table felt _right_. Romantic or otherwise, it was becoming abundantly clear to Clarke that Bellamy felt like home just as much as her family sitting around the table did. Somehow, Bellamy had found his way into her life and not only become a part of it but so much a part of it that she couldn’t picture her life without him.

The realization came as much more of a shock than it should have, of course, but Clarke was still firmly rooted in her denial that this week would play out as a rom-com. Still, she might have been staring at him as she processed this.

“What?” he addressed her lightly when the conversation shifted away from the two of them.

“Hm?’ she returned, still mostly zoned out.

“You were staring at me.” He said by way of explanation.

“Oh. Yeah, I was. Just zoned out I guess,” she tried to brush the conversation off. It wasn’t like she could just come out and say that she was finally realizing that Bellamy was an unmistakable staple in her life and that she needed him. Fake-engaged or not, there were some boundaries that needed to be maintained.

He gave her a few more seconds of an eyebrow-furrowed gaze before he let it slide.

Teatime began winding down shortly and Grandma stood up and announced she needed a nap before dinner time and everyone being of sound mind chose to oblige her. Clarke and Wick dutifully helped clear away the dishes and she waited until the two of them were alone in the kitchen before she broke her character.

“Wick, what the hell is going on,” Clarke whispered venomously.

“I have no idea what you’re talk-“

“Kyle Wickham Griffin,” She cut him off and poked him in the chest. Hard.

“Okay look, I’m sorry. I was wasted last night and heard Bellay talking, and since you’re still really confused, I’m assuming you didn’t see that I tweeted about it. Drunk me was just really excited for you kids, okay?” Wick sounded genuinely remorseful, but that didn’t fix anything.

“ _No_ ,” she hissed. “Not okay. What am I supposed to do now?”

Wick had the decency to look ashamed. Chances are he probably hadn’t spent too much time dwelling on this specific mistake he’d made and logically Clarke knew she couldn’t ask him to- it was his wedding week after all. And as much as she wanted it to be, this wasn’t his problem.

She was just so overwhelmed with guilt though- she wanted it to just go away. Lying to her family may have been temporarily rewarding- everyone seemed so genuinely happy for her, but what was going to happen when she inevitably had to tell the she and Bellamy weren’t getting married?

“Whatever you do, Clarke,” Wick wrapped an arm around his little sister’s shoulders. “Just know that the whole family will still adore you. I mean obviously not as much as they already adore me, but a very, very close second.”

Clarke smacked him lightly but couldn’t help a laugh. Her brother had an uncanny knack for making light out of tense situations with almost no effort. She’d envied it as a child, but now she’d come to appreciate that everyone just had different gifts. She was thankful that if anyone had gotten her into such a mess, it was her idiot brother.

“But really,” Clarke sighed. Moving to rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher (Wick always put them in the wrong way). “What am I supposed to do? Grandma Griffin finally got her hopes up about my future. She’ll be absolutely heartbroken to hear that Bellamy and I ‘broke up’,” Clarke made air quotes with her fingers in between reorganizing plates. Wick remained silent at that.

By the time she’d finished with the dishes Wick still hadn’t replied and she was getting concerned. She rinsed her hands off out of habit and raised an eyebrow at him. The look he was giving her took her longer to process than any of his other looks. She was so used to there being some sort of joking glint to his expression that this new, raw, honesty in his look was freaking her out.

“Did you ever consider you two might not need to break up?” He said softly, almost like he was talking to a frightened animal.

Clarke stopped short. What was that supposed to mean? There was no way she was going to pretend to be engaged or God forbid, actually force Bellamy to marry her and live a lie for the rest of her life. It was ridiculous to think she could even pull that off.

Wick was watching her process his words warily and seemed to understand the way she’d interpreted it before she could even vocalize her protests. She opened her mouth to respond but Wick quirked his eyebrow at her knowingly and her jaw ended up just hanging there.

Obviously Wick couldn’t mean that she and Bellamy _actually_ get engaged. They’d never even dated. Hell, they weren’t even romantically interested in one another- right? Even if she had acknowledged silently and begrudgingly in her head that _yes_ he was very good looking and perhaps he was kind to people and made her laugh, but that meant nothing. Bellamy most certainly wasn’t interested in her, either.

Her brother gave her a few more seconds to gape at his words before he did anything else.

“Remember, this was all Bellamy’s idea to begin with,” Wick said in a tone that was far too meaningful for Clarke to really deal with as he walked out of the kitchen. She wanted Wick to make a joke, or tell her that she could just waltz right out of the situation instead of telling her to put on her big-girl-pants and actually think about things for once.

No matter how much she had to think about though, she couldn’t spend forever dwelling on it when she needed to be in the back yard with her family. She’d think about it later.

Back outside her father had cornered Bellamy and was no doubt giving him a stern talking to about not hurting his daughter- but Bellamy seemed to be taking it in stride. She knew part of that derived from his protectiveness of his sister, he’d no doubt given the same chat several times over. There was a n air of seriousness coming from that corner of the yard- Bellamy’s posture was stiffer than usual and her father’s wasn’t meant for joking,

She crossed the lawn with every intent to intervene, but by the time she made it across the grass the two were laughing together and getting along swimmingly. Clarke would be a lying fool if she said it didn’t make her heart swell a little bit to see them so comfortable with one another.

“Can I cut in,” She caught their attention as she sidled up to their conversation.

“Of course, sweetheart,” her father beamed at her. “I’m just so happy for you two.” He sighed and shook his head before reaching out a hand to Bellamy.

“Good talk, son,” he said and gave Bellamy a handshake before kissing Clarke on the head and sauntering off to tease a few of her cousins.

“Sorry about my dad,” Clarke said as soon as her father was out of earshot.

“It’s totally fine, Clarke,” Bellamy said. He was doing that annoying thing with his eyes where he’d try and stare into her damn soul. She hated it.

“No, actually, I’m about the whole thing. I shouldn’t have made you do this. I know this wasn’t the plan and we can call the whole thing off right now if you want to.” Clarke knew she was rambling a bit, a panicked habit she’d developed over the years but she couldn’t stop herself. Bellamy didn’t deserve this. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this and there’s no reason that I should have dragged you into it, especially with it being-“

“Clarke.” He placed a huge hand on her shoulder. It effectively silenced her.

“Clarke,” he started again. “I should be the one apologizing.” He dropped his hand and shoved both of his in his pockets. “I lied to you. I _do_ remember last night and I don’t know why but for some reason I figured it would be better to just pretend that I didn’t.”

Bellamy was looking at the grass like it was the most interesting thing he’d seen since all day and Clarke was glad because she was certain that her heart was almost visibly beating out of her chest. She had been almost relieved that he hadn’t remembered the night before- it was fewer repercussions she’d have to deal with. If he remembered the dancing, the drinking, his assumption that they were getting married- well. She wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Anyways,” he cleared his throat and fidgeted some more. “This whole mess is my fault I guess.”

“Stop, Bellamy.” She wouldn’t let him take the blame for this. He always tried to take the blame for everyone and everything. “It’s still my fault whether you like it or not- I’m going to take the fall for it. But in all honesty if you want to call it off, we can do that. It isn’t fair of me to ask you to play fiancé.”

“I don’t mind,” he rushed to answer. “I mean it isn’t that bad-” he sighed, frustrated. He was always so good with words and she knew she had to give him space to figure out what he was trying to say exactly. “What I’m trying to say is, I guess it’s kind of nice, really. Your family is really great and I can see why you want to do everything you can to make them happy. I don’t want to call it off, but if you do, that’s fine with me.”

Bellamy was gazing off at her family members that still lingered in the backyard even though the meal was long over.

Clarke was having difficulty tamping down her grin so she acted on impulse and threw her arms around Bellamy’s neck. It took him a minute to respond but as soon as her action hit him, his arms were wrapping around the small of her waist in return.

“Does this mean we’re still engaged?” he laughed lightly into her hair.

“You still owe me a ring,” she smiled and buried her face into his shoulder for a moment. She ignored the way that sparks ran through her body at the contact and the way that his fingers curling into her sides made her feel lightheaded. She drew back slightly so she could place a kiss on his cheek, and if it lingered a second or two more than she meant it to, well, they were engaged after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THOUGHTS?? COMMENTS??? PREDICTIONS???  
> I'm beyond sorry that it took me so long to get this out. I know I promised updates over and over again, but life, writer's block, and just general procrastination got to me. Thank you so much to everyone who commented or messaged me on tumblr because you guys are literally the whole reason I finished this chapter. Feedback fuels me (and every other writer ever- make sure you tell your writers you love them it does a lot). anyways, as always, you can find me on [tumblr](protectlydiamartin2k15.tumblr.com) and I promise to be better about updating for the next chapter. I'm sorry if this one was awful, I just really wanted to get it out there.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Comments? Feelings? Predictions?  
> I wanna know what you guys thought so let me know, feedback of any sort is always appreciated.  
> XOXO  
> Find me on [Tumblr](bellarkemorelikebaellarke.tumblr.com)


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